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RP: YSS Aeon [Mission 7.0] - Prologue Southern Encounters

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Perhaps fortunately for the Nepelesian, Eli Destin made his late entrance to the wardroom. He tried to enter as inconspicuously as possible so as to not interrupt any proceedings, but there wasn't much unnoticeable about a six foot tall Elysian with well formed wings in a Yamataian ship.

If he knew that his entrance would likely draw attention, he didn't show it. His face was a mask of neutral professionalism as he quickly surveyed the room and it's inhabitants. He quickly noticed that the briefing must have ended and his posture visibly relaxed and his face lost some of its forced edge.

He saw a red haired neko and a Nepelesian who seemed to be doing his best to avoid the lights of the room next to a species he had never seen before. He assumed he or she was the new species Ise-Taisa spoke of. Noticing their collective distress, he decided it best to put aside his curiosity for now.

He spotted a beautiful and well built 29 series. She seemed to Eli to hold herself with a serious poise with a strong air and he privately made a mental note to ask her for a sparring match at some point. Then he noticed the Santô Juni insignia on her uniform with a small measure of dismay and dismissed the notion.

A male Yamataian with a scar also caught his eye, and he wondered what battle he went through to earn the disfiguring injury. He would have to make a point to ask later.

There were others, such a few male Yamataians who looked only slightly less green than him and a few other nekos, but the overall air carried the impression of a relaxed crew just off shore leave. Perhaps after a particularly dangerous mission he amended after noticing a scorch mark on the floor.
 
Wardroom

Katae noted the arrival of Eli.

"Folks, this is our newest member of the crew. Eli Destin-Santô Hei. He will be staying in Cabin Seven with Tanaka-Hei.

Speaking of which, a couple of house keeping items. Vostok and Diapolo. You are now assigned to Cabin six since you have not yet chosen a cabin. Kindly take your gear to the room and get it secured.

Oinari-Hei, I am putting Kata'nova in with you. Kindly show her the room and the facilities.

Also there are new Type 33 Nekovalkyrja Service Pistols in the armory. If you still have a Type 30, please go down to the armor and swap it out.

Aria-Hei, get all those Daisies back into serviceable condition, and the store them in the hold. I do not anticipate needing the during our exploration.

Shina-Hesho, see what we can scrounge up from the supplies in our hold and the Kyoten for our guest.

Yamamoto-Heisho, glad to have you back onboard. You will have some help on the bridge, a trainee. Come to my cabin in a few minutes and we can discuss the matter.

Action stations in two hours people." she said, and across the ship on any monitor Eternity placed a countdown timer.

Katae walked out of the cabin and made her way to her room to await Trowa.
 
"Aye, aye Ma'am." Trowa said as he quickly got to his feet and bowed to acknowledge the orders. Inside he was cursing. Why, why, why? Why the one time I’ve had too much to drink do I have to meet with the Taisa? There is just no justice. He also cursed Elizabeth Somerset, the Nepleslian woman who had sent him the whiskey in the first place.

As the Taisa left, Trowa glanced at Kata'nova and Freyja. The poor pilot looked like she was going to faint. He was frustrated for having the attention drawn to him but it was his own fault and his responsibility. “Oinari-Hei, I like your enthusiasm in helping our guest here express herself. But try to use a little more… tact next time. She doesn’t need to know everything.” Trowa paused. He wanted Freyja to know that there weren’t any hard feelings. “Stop by and see me later. I’m pretty good at imitating accents and maybe I can help with your translation program.”

Trowa stopped by Eli on his way out and held out his hand to welcome the Elysian. “Welcome aboard Destin-Hei. We’ll have to get together sometime and have drink and swap war stories, if you’ve got any. Right now however, I’ve got to meet with the Taisa. And you don’t ever want to keep the Taisa waiting.” He added almost in a whisper.
 
Eli gave a small bow and extension of his wings at the mention of his name by the Taisa and hesitated a brief moment as Trowa offered a hand to him. He took the offered hand and shook, perhaps with a little too much pressure, but with a sincere enough smile.

"Thank you Yamamoto-Heisho. No war stories I'm afraid, but I'd be more than happy to hear yours and share a drink sometime we are off duty." he replied with a measure of polite formality. "And no, of course not." he said while matching Trowa's conspiratorial tone with an inflection that perhaps suggested he didn't get that it was intended to be a joke.
 
Wardroom

Kim walked over to Eli, "Glad to see you made it Destin-Hei. Looks like I will be seeing you around. I'd love to stay and chat, but the Taisa has given me some tasks to do before we leave."

She smiled and then walked out of the room.
 
Yoshiro decided to meet his new bunkmate and see what he was all about. He had heard about the Elysians and the wars that they had fought against Yamatai but since he wasn't around that time he really wasn't worried about what the Elysian would think of him. He would talk to him in a moment. He went to Tsubei-heisho and spoke to her.

"Tsubei-heisho, I would like to thank you for your service. If it were not for you, I would not have the experience I do now." He said to her. "Thank you from the bottom of my heart and congratulations on the new job."
 
Eli nodded and returned the smile with a warm one of his own. "Of course, Shina-Heisho. I will see you around." He turned his attention to the rest of the room; It seemed that the 29 series- or rather Tsubei-Heisho would likely be transferring soon going by the words of the rest of the crew. He had already secured his belongings in his cabin and had nowhere pressing to be, so he decided to remain in the wardroom for now and take the chance to meet as many of the crew as he could before they were busy with preparations.
 
Wardroom

"Yes Ma'am," Freyja responded to the Taisa. she was pleased that the pilot would be bunked with her. Before she could explain the arrangements to Kat, Trowa spoke to her.
Cowboy said:
“Oinari-Hei, I like your enthusiasm in helping our guest here express herself. But try to use a little more… tact next time. She doesn’t need to know everything.”

"yes sir, sorry sir."

Cowboy said:
“Stop by and see me later. I’m pretty good at imitating accents and maybe I can help with your translation program.”

"Thank you sir that would be a bit help, I would love to make it easy for our new friend here to talk with us all. I think She would be pleased too." Freyja smiled her little mousy smile before looking for a picture of people following each other, then pointing to the door and leading Kata'nova to their bunk.
 
Wardroom

Kata'nova was confused right now, because of what was being said she couldn't understand and just stood there dumbfounded; glancing between Trowa and Freyja before letting out a stressed sigh and folded her arms over her chest, her tail once again slapping from side to side only much faster now.

"Xjti J dpvme voefstuboe uifn, uijt jt gsvtusbujoh..." she said in her peoples native language.
 
As Freyja was about to walk out of the Wardroom she heard her new roommate's stressful sigh and words, not much of it made seance, and she doubted the software was going to be much help. She turned back and looked at Kata'.

She use her glasses and brought up a list of the words the program had translated so far. The list was quite short. She thought for a minute before activating the program and having it show a picture of Trowa and Freyja talking to Kata' followed by a picture of all three of them laughing, then back to them talking again.

Freyja was stuck, she really wanted to help Kata' but she didn't really know how.
 
Seeing the pictures made Kata'nova looked up and at Freyja, the girl blinked confusingly and cocked her head to one side as she stared at the Neko.

Eh?
 
Freyja saw how confuse Kata' was getting. "Eternity can you help here please. I'm stuck, any chance you can boost the translation program's abilities?"
 
Wardroom
"Perhaps a more practical approach would be to go down to the Lounge, and pour something alcoholic into a glass and bring it up. That way she can see and smell it. Then she will have a clear reference to what it is, and our word. Then you can ask her to say her word. That way she learns and we learn. Right now there is nothing in the lexicon for alcoholic beverages." Came Eternity's voice from the speakers.
 
"If I may?" Eli tentatively interjected quietly into the proceedings and approached the two. "It seems like we are overwhelming the poor girl a bit. Perhaps we should try using smaller words and less complicated sentences until our mutual vocabulary is more developed?"

Her frustration didn't seem to be coming from the confusion about alchohol, she was probably frustrated about feeling left out of a friend's conversation! He turned to Kata and tried to speak slowly with careful enunciation (cursing his Seraphim accent in the meantime). "Oinari-Hei." he pointed to her. "Yamamoto-Heishi" He gestured out the door, hoping Kata' recognized the name. "Talk." he gestured to his moving mouth. "Our words", he gestured to his mouth and added a sweeping gesture to include the others in the room. "Your words." he finished by gesturing to the kit with an open hand.

It was very rough, but it was better than nothing. It seemed translation efforts were still very early, and Eli didn't think that less concrete and tangible words and vocabulary would translate well right now. He looked between Kata' and Oinari-Hei and hoped he didn't overstep his bounds early.
 
Location: Captain's Cabin
ON
Katae walked into her cabin and looked around. There was nothing of a personal laying around in the room. She was still trying to figure out exactly what was going on in the wardroom. Why was Freyja staggering around, and what did the unpleased expression on Kata'nova's face mean.

Further she was just a tad annoyed, Trowa returns to the Aeon and he does not even greet her when he walks into the wardroom. I wonder if he is ill. He did seem a bit peaked.

Trowa stopped by his cabin and quickly chewed up some breath mints. He was pretty ticked, mostly with himself. "The one time the Taisa wants to speak with me privately about training a new guy and I smell like vagabond. The one time I drink too much off duty..." He trailed off into a string of curses as he straightened his uniform and eye patch then headed for the Taisa's quarters.

When the Nepleslian reached the Taisa's door he took a calming breath and prepared himself for whatever would occur. Hopefully, she won't bust me down to a Yonto-Hei.

The door opened without any action on Trowa's behalf. Katae's voice called out, "Come in Yamamoto-Heisho."

Katae was standing in front front of her small work desk, leaning against it. She watched Trowa entrance to the room with close scrutiny. Her green eyes scanning his movements.

Trowa walked in and bowed. "Isa-Taisa, how are you this morning?" His tone was clear, without any slur and his movements fluid and smooth.

Katae paused just a moment before returning his bow with a much lesser one. "I have had worse days, and I have had better days." She walked around the desk and took a seat.

Haven't we all. Trowa thought to himself.

"Take a seat Heisho, I have a few questions I would like answered before we discuss the training." she said, then picked up her coffee and took a sip.

"Thank you Ma'am." Trowa said as he took a seat. "Fire away."

"Well, I have two questions to start with. The first is I expected a bit more courtesy when you returned to the ship. You came into the Wardroom, and did not even stop to say any form of greeting. I expect a bit more from my Senior soldiers. After all you are expected to be examples for the new recruits. Care to explain?" Katae said with a slightly annoyed expression on her face.

Trowa winced and closed his real eye. He let out his breath slowly then answered honestly. "Yes Ma'am. I... allowed myself to... relax too much while I was off duty. As a result, I was not focused on the tasks at hand. It was bad form on my part and a poor example for a NCO. I sincerely apologize and assure you that it will not happen again." Trowa held himself upright and looked Katae straight in the eye as he spoke.

Katae's expression remained unchanged, except for a brief raise of her left eyebrow. "Well, that takes care of my second question. I was going to ask if you were unwell and needed to report to medical." She leaned forward, "Was there a woman involved in this relaxing?"

His Nepleslian pride almost surfaced but Trowa kept himself in check. It was a fair question, if a little personal. "I received a gift from an old friend I met on my first leave. It was some new cybernetic upgrades and several fine bottles of whiskey." He paused, "Aye, you could say a woman was involved."

"I see good, so your recreation did not result in another soldier reporting for duty slightly impaired." Katae answered leaning back in her chair. Her expression softened. "Well, given that your transfer was rather sudden. Everyone deserves a little down time, after all these years of war. I am going to let this slide, consider this your free pass Trowa-San. You are a good soldier, and everyone can make mistakes. I am going to presume that you will be fully capable of handing the Aeon when we leave." She said and took a sip of her coffee.

Trowa let out a sigh of relief. He wasn't going to get busted down to Yonto-Hei or have be thrown in the brig. This was why he liked and respected Katae so much. She was willing to forgive mistakes and to give a second chance. "Thank you for understanding Ma'am. It will not occure again." Trowa smiled slightly. "A cup of Nami-Hei's coffee and I'll be ready."

"Now as to the matter of training, Tanaka-Hei has recently come forward asking for more responsibility on the Aeon. So he has been getting some training as a starship operator. I would like you to work with him. schedule some training sessions. He has had basic flight practices, but purely in simulation. Do you see any problem with this request?"

Trowa relaxed a little in his seat and thought about Tanaka-Hei. "He's a good soldier. I've seen him have more confidence in himself since he first joined up. On the contrary, I think we could both benefit from it. Recently lost his father didn't he?"

"He mentioned it a while the crew was on leave and the ship was being repaired.

That may be a contributing factor in his desire to do more. Yes, I do agree that working together you will both benefit. After all while teaching him, you will find your own skills will become better. And you never know, he might think of something in a combat situation that you did not."

"That I have no doubt. I look forward to it."

"Did you arrive in time for my mission briefing?" she inquired.

"Aye, Ma'am. We're going to be helping Oinari-Hei's friend... What is it called again?"

"HER name is Kata'nova, she is a Shukaren Daur of the Neshaten people. From what we have ascertained, she is a younger member of their society. What you would call a teenager." Katae replied.

"Ah, right. No disrespect intended. We're helping Kata'nova find her people and doing exploring while we are at it. Which, I won't lie, will be nice not to have to an attack NMX base again."

"Yes, it will be good, but we could be going into uncharted space, with unknown dangers. Or passing through areas in our sector without law, like the former UOC. So we need to be prepared for just about anything.

"So business as usual then?"

You still have your computer interface to help you I presume. Tanaka-Hei recently upgraded to the Minkan body so that he could make use of the SPINE interface. Might be interesting to have you two run combat against each other in simulation." Katae said with a smile

"Aye, Ma'am. If fact I've just installed some new hardware that will increase my performance." Trowa smiled back. "Now that would be interesting. Out of curiosity, who would your money be on?"

"For the moment, that would be you. Experience almost always wins."

"Just happy to know that you still have confidence in me, Ma'am."

"I will continue to have confidence in your ability until such time as you give me reason not to. You will want to get some data from Eternity. Since we are going out for a while, we are running with extra equipment. We will have a Tenba-Class Transporter attached to our starboard airlock. I am sure the extra mass is going to cause a shift in our center of gravity."

"Eternity, would you kindly send me the data on that? Is there anything else I should be aware of Ma'am?"

"I think we are done for the moment. I will see you on the bridge, also if you wish to do any shopping I would suggest you make it quick. We could be gone for a while, so any entertainment items you might want.. well I think you get the idea." she said with a grin.

Trowa stood and bowed. "Thank you Ma'am. I will be ready."

"Then you are dismissed Trowa-San, see about getting some breakfast."
"Aye, aye Taisa." Trowa said as he headed for the door.
OFF
 
Freyja Looked at the new person that was jumping in, she quickly brought up the crew roster on her glasses. Only after scanning over Eli's information did she speak. "Thank you Mr. Destin, I'm not sure what to do here, we have this software running that will help slowly learn and translate the language but I have to get Kata' talking in context to things. Like Word, Object, you see."

She turned back to Kata' she smiled and tried to put a good expression on. "Kata' Please relax," She stood all tensed up then exaggerated relaxing, " I'm trying get help." she pointed at Eli, then to the volumetric screen that was there to help with pictures.
 
Eli quirked a brow at the lack of a Yamataian honorific in address but said nothing; he already looked a touch embarrassed and he didn't want to make it worse. "Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have just jumped in then." he gave a sheepish smile that he hoped looked apologetic to the two of them. "Oh and, sorry for using your name without a proper introduction first. I just overheard it when the Taisa spoke and I figured it was prudent to the moment..." he trailed off and decided to change the subject.

"What methodology are you using for the syntactical analysis? Would it be possible to have her dictate a cultural story of some kind to provide a large corpus to work with and analyze?"
 
Kata'nova's ears twitched as she listened, but her attention was soon cut when she noticed a flutter out of the corner of her eyes and saw the wings on Eli's back. They were... odd... to her, she'd never seen such a thing before, at least not on something sentient anyway.

She curiously walked over to Eli and looked him in the face, then looked to either side of his head then walked around to the back and as his wings, they looked rather fluffy to her and she wondered if they were even real, so she decided to touch them - stretching out her hand and grabbing a small area of the wing gently.
 
Eli continued to face Freyja while speaking as Kata' circled around him before unintentionally punctuating his question with a loud undignified yelp. His face screwed up in mortified concentration as he stopped a colorful Seraphim phrase from slipping out.

He looked quite comical, his entire stoic professional veneer completely and utterly shattered as his eyes began to twitch, his nose wrinkled, and his mouth opened and closed involuntarily.

It wasn't that Kata's gentle tug was painful, but it was unpleasant in the way that any sudden unexpected invasion of personal space involving a sensitive part of the body is.

Also, Eli had ticklish wings.

Totally forgetting for the moment about Kata's inability to understand his words he quietly spoke while standing perfectly still.

"Kata'...please, could you stop that please?"
 
The sudden yelp had caused Kata'nova to freak out as the young Kit released her grip on the Elysians wings. The yelp had startled her though, as her tail suddenly wrapped itself around her body with the tip being in front. The tip was fluffy, and the tail was shaking a bit.

What Eli didn't know, was that because Kata'nova's species had a very strong sense of hearing, his yelp was much louder than a species whose hearing was normal. So, to Kata'nova, that yelp was 'very' loud and was the reason it had startled her into a fearful state.

She backed off a bit, grabbing the tip of her tail as her ears shot up, back and began to twitch uncontrolably.
 
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